And this is the substance of all that these men plead and make a noise with in the world, in an opposition to the eternal deity of the Son of God ! This pretence of reason (which evidently comes short of being any thing else) is their shield and buckler in the cause they have unhappily undertaken. When they tell us of Christ's being hungry and dying, we say it was in the human nature, wherein he was obnoxious to such things no less than we, being therein made like unto us in all things, sin only excepted ; — when of his submis- sion and subjection to his Father, we tell them it is in respect of the office of mediator, which he willingly undertook, and that his in- equality unto him as to that office doth no way prejudice his equality with him in respect of his nature and being. But when, with the Scriptures and arguments from thence, as clear and convincing as if they were wiitten with the beams of the sun, we prove our dear Lord
DEITY OF CHRIST PROVED, ETC. 21]
Jesus, in respect of a divine nature, whereof he was partaker from eternity, to be God, blessed for ever, they tell us it cannot be that two such diverse natures as those of God and man should be united in one person ; and it cannot be so, because it cannot be so, — there is no such union among other things ! And these things must be, that those who are approved may be tried. But let us hear them out.
Q. But whereas they show that Christ consisteth of a divine and human nature, as a man consisteth 0/ soul and body, what is to he answered them?
A. That here is a very great difference ; for they say that the t\\'o natures in Christ are so united that Christ is both God and man. But the soul and body are in that manner conjoined in man, that a man is neither soul nor body; for neither soul nor body doth singly of itself constitute a person. But as the di- vine nature by itself constitutes a person, so it is necessary that the human nature should do.'
Ans. ]. In what sense it maybe said that Christ, that is, the person of Christ, consisteth of a divine and human nature, was be- fore declared. The person of the Son of God assumed the human nature into subsistence with itself, and both in that one person are Christ.
2. If our catechists have no more to say, to the illustration given of the union of the two natures in the person of Christ by that of the soul and body in one human person, but that there is " a great dif- ference" in something between them, they do but filch away the grains that are allowed to every similitude, and show wherein the comparates differ, but answer not to that wherein they do agree.
3. All that is intended by this similitude is, to show that besides the change of things, one into another, by the loss of one, as of water into wine by Christ, and besides the union that is in physi- cal generation by mixture, whereby and from whence some third thing ariseth, that also there is a substantial union, whereby one thing is not turned into another nor mixed with it. And the end of using this similitude (which, to please our catechists, we can forbear, acknowledging that there is not among created beings any thing that can fully represent this, which we confess " without controversy to be a great mystery") is only to manifest the folly of that assertion of their master on John i., " That if the 'Word be made flesh' in our sense, it must be turned into flesh ; for," saith he, " one thing cannot be made another but by change, conversion, and mutation into it:" the absurdity of which assertion is sufficiently evinced by the sub- stantial union of soul and body, made one person, without that alter-
" " Cum vcro illi ostendunt, Christum sic ex natura divina et humana constare, quem- admodum homo ex animo et coi-pore constet, quid illis respondendum ? — Pennagnum hie esse discrimen; illi enim aiunt, duas naturasin Christo ita unitas esse, ut Christus sit Dcus et homo. Anima vero et corpus ad eum modum in homine conjuncta svmt, ut nee anima nee coi-pus ij^se homo sit, ncc enim anima nee corpus sigillatim personam constituunt. At ut natura divina per sc constituit personam, ita humana constituat per se necesse est."
212 VINDICIiE EVANGELINE.
ation and change of their natures which is pleaded for. Neither is the Word made flesh by alteration, but by union.
4. It is confessed that the soul is not said to be made the body, nor the body said to be made the soul, as the Word is said to be made flesh ; for the union of soul and body is not a union of distinct substances subsisting in one common subsistence, but a union of two parts of one nature, whereof the one is the form of the other. And herein is the dissimilitude of that similitude. Hence will that pre- dication be justified in Christ, " The Word was made flesh," without any change or alteration, because of that subsistence whereunto the flesh or human nature of Christ was assumed, which is common to them both. And so it is in accidental predications. When we say a man is made white, black, or pale, we do not intend that he is as to his substance changed into whiteness, etc., but that he who is a man is also become white.